[or-roots] NYSSA, OREGON HISTORY

[Betty White]

The following is a news article which appeared in the Ontario Argus Observer on July 1, 2003.  Permission was given to use this article as long as credit is given for its source. 
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LOOKING BACK - EARLY YEARS OF NYSSA'S HISTORY 

Editors Note:  Nyssa celebrates its Centennial July 24 through July 27.  This week, the Us section will feature a series of historical articles and photographs submitted by Judy Barnes.  These originally appeared in Nyssa's "Gate City Journal" during the 1970's under a series titled, "Out of the Past". 

NYSSA - The city of Nyssa was incorporated in February 1903, with Daniel Ehrgood as mayor and Sanford Emison as city recorder. 
     Events leading up to this action revolved around the arrival of the Oregon Short Line railroad which reached Malheur County from the East in December 1883, while the Oregon Railroad and Navigation company was building railroad eastward from Portland. 
     A man by the name of Lennox Boyle, born in Canada, had a stock of goods in a tent city on the east side of the Snake River. 
     The tent city was populated by families whose husbands and fathers worked on the railroad.  Boyle had followed the construction with a supply of groceries and dry goods. 
     As soon as he knew the two railroads were soon to connect and his store would no longer be needed, Boyle settled on a homestead on the west side of the river where a section house and water tower had been built at what was the future site of Nyssa. 
     Boyle ran the little grocery in a building about 10-by-12 feet with a cold storage in the rear - walk-in cellar with walls about four feet thick, made of sagebrush with dirt and with railroad ties and more dirt on top. 
     Mr. Boyle applied for a post office, the application being signed by Albert Finch, who was the Parma Postmaster at that time, Parma being the closest post office to Nyssa. 
     The Nyssa Post Office was established June 15, 1889.  The first Postmasters were Kate Whelan, June 15, 1889, Lennox Boyle, July 15, 1895, and Sanford Emison, January 12, 1898.  Kate Whelan's husband was James Whelan, a railroad section foreman.  It is probable that the post office was the section house. 
     James Whelan was on the first Nyssa School Board 
     The Whelans left Nyssa and lived in Payette for many years. 
     Lennox Boyle died Nov. 23, 1897, and is buried in the Evergreen cemetery, Ontario. 
     During his residence in Nyssa he taught school for a time in 1897, at the Lackey residence.  Though he was not a trained teacher, he knew the "3R's". 
     Holiver Megorden and family moved to Nyssa between 1892 and 1895.
     He purchased part of Lennox Boyle's homestead and opened the second store in town. 
     Mr. Megorden shot and killed his wife, March 28, 1905, resulting in the first murder trial in the county in which the death penalty was given. 
     Megorden was hung in Salem in 1907.


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